Complaining about a colleague is not the same as raising a grievance, an employee learned

An employee who complained about a colleague cannot later recast it as a grievance against his employer, Judge Kathryn Beck ruled on 3 July 2026.

The Employment Court was asked whether a former clinical team coordinator at Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) raised three personal grievances within the 90 days required by section 114 of the Employment Relations Act 2000. The case was heard on the papers after the Employment Relations Authority found the grievances had not been validly raised in time.

The employee was dismissed for serious misconduct on 4 July 2024. Before that, in September 2023, he complained that a colleague had accessed his daughter's files in breach of the agency's privacy and confidentiality policies. He raised it with the colleague's manager, not with his own.

He later claimed the colleague called the police and used racially discriminatory language toward him. He also alleged the agency failed to protect him and his family, and that he had been bullied and his complaints ignored. Health NZ accepted he raised some grievances in time but disputed these three, saying they surfaced for the first time in an amended statement of problem filed in July 2024.

Judge Beck examined the communications said to have raised the grievances. She found the September complaint centred on the colleague's conduct, not on any action or omission by the employer. What the employee...

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